The invention disclosed herein relates generally to interactivity in broadcast systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing interactive advertisements and other promotionals delivered over a broadcast network and presented in both full screen advertisements and within an electronic program guide.
Various audio/video navigation and electronic program guide systems are known to those skilled in the art. These systems typically provide some degree of interactive functionality whereby advanced navigation features are made available to a user of such a system. For example, electronic program guides are provided whereby a user may explore programming available at a variety of future times. Likewise, advanced information may be provided to users as they navigate among the channels that comprise the available programming.
Digital television programming is transmitted on MPEG-2 transport streams, each stream combining multiple channels of programming as a single multiplex. The MPEG standards are an evolving set of standards for video and audio compression developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG). MPEG-2 was designed for coding interlaced images at transmission rates above four million bits per second. In addition to television, MPEG-2 is used to encode data for the digital versatile disk (DVD) media format. A cable system, for example, combines multiple transport multiplexes to form a channel lineup. Each channel typically carries programming comprised of one video stream and at least one audio stream. In addition, a program may combine closed-caption text or other auxiliary information into a broadcast by transmitting a “private data stream”.
With the advent of digital television, the introduction of electronic program guides has become prevalent. An electronic program guide allows users to electronically browse TV listings. Moreover, these guides provide functionality to tune selected programming, set reminders, or select programs for current or future recording. As users adjust to using these features, they will find it desirable to have access to them during or within broadcast advertisements, for example, commercials played during scheduled programming or advertisements appearing within an EPG.
There is thus a need for a system and method whereby the interactive features of an electronic program guide are available from within broadcast advertisements presented as either full screen advertisements or within the electronic program guide.